Lim Rocket
Lim Rocket is an avoidance action game created by ha55ii on October 3, 2014, and is the 20th game released on Dan-Ball. The term "Lim" is not an actual English word. However, it is thought to be a translation error from Japanese to English when the game was created. "Lim" in Japanese translates to "rim" in English. However, to what "rim" refers to is currently unknown. A possible explanation is it is meant to refer to the "outer rim" of space, which makes sense given how this rocket is seemingly exploring the vastness of space. Gameplay Using the left and right mouse buttons (or the directional buttons), the player can steer a small, cylindrical rocket to avoid planets. The placement of these planets is completely random, however, certain limitations apply. The center of a planet cannot be created before the start line, outside of the game screen, or overlapping each other. Planets can also vary in size, from small to extremely large. If both movement buttons are pressed at the same time, or the space bar is pressed as of ver1.1, a large blast of fire will appear on the end of the rocket, greatly speeding up or slowing down the rocket's velocity and changing its trajectory. The game ends when the player leaves the screen for too long, or hits a planet. When the ship leaves the screen, a timer which counts in frames will appear. When the timer reaches 300 frames (6s) the game ends, but as soon as the ship reenters the screen, the timer will stop and reset. This is a risky, but effective alternative if avoiding the planets becomes nearly impossible. Each planet has it's own gravity, which pulls the ship towards it. It may appear that smaller planets have a stronger gravity, but this is because the rocket can get closer to the center of the planet. In fact, there is only one gravity strength in the game, which means that all planets in the game are of equal total mass. The player must use maneuvering thrusters to push the ship to avoid crashing or leaving the screen for too long. If the ship impacts a planet, a small explosion is produced, and the game is over. The ship's trajectory (accounting for the gravity of the planets) is displayed by a curved dotted line in front of the ship in all stages except for blind mode. This line includes the colours grey, yellow, and red. The distance between dots in this line depends on the speed of the ship. The faster the ship is travelling, the longer the space in between these dots will be. When the dots are close together, it is clear that each of these three colours actually blends with the colour directly in front of and behind it. Grey is the colour displayed for trajectories a safe distance from any planets, yellow is the trajectory when the ship is close to a collision, and red is the trajectory whenever it overlaps a planet. The distance the ship has traveled from the starting line is measured in kilometers. Since the player starts slightly before the 'actual' starting line, the distance counter displays negative numbers when in this area. The home menu of Lim Rocket is very simple. It consists of a pixelated title. The colour of which depends on the glow of the planet displayed beneath it. The planet displayed is the planet the player crashed into when they last played the game (as the game has no save feature, reloading will cause the planet to be chosen randomly). If, for any reason, they had not impacted a planet when they last lost the game, one of the many planet types that will be picked at random for the title. The planet can be manipulated by moving the cursor over it. A close look proves that the planet's rotation is actually a little distorted. Under the planet is the mode selection. The last notable item displayed on the home menu is a setting that switches the ship's rotation if pressed. Modes Enjoy Mode Enjoy Mode simply consists of a never ending course, where the player simply attempts to pass as many planets as possible before losing the game. Ecology Mode This mode was implemented in ver1.2. The rocket has limited fuel and once the fuel runs out for its corresponding tank, the player is unable to use that tank until starting a new game. The side thrusters run on gas, while the main thruster runs on oil. Each thrust has its own tank; one can run out of gas before the other does. Running out of fuel will result in the inability to maneuver the rocket, and ultimately losing the game. The tanks are located at the bottom of the screen. Charge Mode This mode was implemented in ver1.4. It features the same limited fuel mechanism as the Ecology Mode, but the fuel runs out much faster. However, the fuel can be recharged by flying the rocket close to a planet (which is the area where a trajectory line will turn yellow). When the rocket flies near a planet to recharge, a beam the colour of the planet's glow can be seen shooting out of the planet towards the ship. Blind Mode This mode was implemented in ver1.5. The trajectory prediction line is disabled, requiring players to predict the trajectory themselves. Great Mode This mode was implemented in ver1.7. Planets appear in far greater numbers. This makes it easier to obtain higher scores in a shorter amount of time when compared to other modes, but also greatly increases the game's difficulty. Scoring The scoring is based on how many planets the rocket has successfully maneuvered around. The player must pass the center of the planet for it to count towards the score. If the player is to move backwards past a planet which has already been passed, score will not be deducted from the total. Ranking A ranking function is available for each individual mode of Lim Rocket. In each ranking board, only the number of points obtained is considered in the ranking board. In case of a tie all players share the same rank. Trivia *This game has the most detail in terms of graphics out of all the current Dan-Ball games. *Each planet produces a glow around it's edges. The colour of this glow can vary, and depends on the type of planet. Observing this glow can be the only way to detect very dark planets. *The player cannot go back, as the game refuses to scroll backwards, and going back results in launching the timer. *The thrusts that rotate the rocket affects the trajectory of the rocket, but only slightly. **Using one thrust amusingly gives the rocket the appearance of an aerosol can. *The glow produced by a planet is reflected faintly off of the rocket's body. The planet itself, however, is not. *Planets can be seen with a thin "atmosphere" that slowly circles the planet, and gives the illusion of movement to the planet itself. *On very rare occasions, planets may appear to overlap. *This game is essentially a combination of the games Rockets, Planet Simulation, and Ham Race. *The fuel gauge lists the main thruster as using oil, and the two maneuvering thrusters as using gas. *Each maneuvering thruster fuel gauge is roughly half the size of the main thruster gauge. *As of ver1.8, the Earth appears in greyscale on the HTML5 version of the game. This has most likely been caused by an error in converting the game from Javascript to HTML5, and it is unknown if this issue will persist into later versions of the game. History Category:Web games Category:Lim Rocket